The Declaration Book Review

The Declaration explores a strange future where science and morality collide. Weve got the review of this young adult novel!

Author: Gemma Malley

The future may be a lot more sinister than The Jetsons made it look. The Declaration explores a future where science and morality collide in a surprising way, and where one little girl tries to outsmart the system.

The Surplus's Tale

"Surplus Anna" is a teenage girl in a society of old people. Seriously old people. In Anna's future world, longevity drugs have given people the ability to potentially live forever, but that seemingly ideal situation has come at a price. In order to prevent the planet from becoming overrun with humans, the world's governments have decided that citizens will be given the choice of either being allowed to take longevity drugs or being allowed to have children. It's a sort of "one in, one out" policy.

Misery Loves Company

So what happens if a person who has agreed [KWLINK ]not to have children[/KWLINK] breaks their promise? They're thrown in jail, of course, and their child becomes a "Surplus", which is essentially a slave. Anna is just such a person. She's been brought up since the age of two in a workhouse that trains Surpluses to be passive workers who never question authority. Anna is the ideal Surplus, until a new boy comes to the Surplus Hall.

A Brave New World

Peter is different from all of the other Surpluses that Anna knows. He's managed to hide from the "Catchers" (the police who bust AWOL Surpluses) until he was a teenager, which means that he's rebellious and not afraid to question the system. Even more than that, Anna soon learns about Peter's connection to her birth parents and his daring plans to escape!

Bottom Line

The Declaration is a thought-provoking and page-turning read that's sort of like The Handmaid's Tale for teens. There are some seriously heart-pounding moments in this book that will have you up all night to find out what happens. It's also a great book to share with your pals so you can discuss it afterward because there's a lot of interesting ideas to talk about (c'mon, you can't talk about Britney ALL of the time).